Prowlers Embrace
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: This is a semi dark-ish Ichigo/OC story. He couldn't help himself. From the moment that he laid his eyes on Misty Reid, her life, her health, her happiness and well being belonged to him and him alone.
1. Chapter 1

He didn't know why he did it.

He only knew that he couldn't stand to be away from her for very long. Slipping into her home, like he had every night for the past three months, Ichigo carefully lowered her window back into place and scanned the room for her.

He found her on the floor with her back against her bed, slumped over to the side a bit. Her many, many projects scattered across the carpeted floor on both sides of her. Sighing softly, he moved silently over to her and knelt down to check her over.

She'd been sick lately. Her body trying hard to fight off a high fever, and yet here he found her. Out of bed, with some work scatted all over the place.

His sweet little one didn't seem to _know_,_ understand_, nor _care_ overly much for her human limitations. And as vexing as he found that to be- he also found it quite endearing as well.

She was a hard worker.

He liked that about her. Even if she _did_ often forget to take care of herself because she was too busy to do so. But he supposed that that was just part of the reason that he was there.

He took care of her. Though he didn't leave any true trace of himself behind, he suspected that she somehow knew that someone was there. It was a tad bit difficult not to notice really. As much as he hid his presence from her during his nightly visits- there was no denying that he'd messed up a few times.

Those times had been purely accidental. But noticeable nevertheless.

It was difficult for her not to notice that something was amiss when she went to sleep on the floor like now, and woke up in her bed with her room picked up, her kittens- Raphael and Gale- fed, and breakfast waiting for her in her microwave.

He found it just slightly ironic that she had thought him to be a ghost for a little while, give his job as a Soul Reaper. And had dubbed him, _Phantom_. Because of his comings and goings in her home.

But she had never been afraid of him and the possible horror's that he could unleash upon her. Which had not only been incredibly stupid, but oddly puzzling to him.

Kneeling down he carefully lifted her up in his arms, noting that her fever had spiked again. He could feel the heat coming off of her and it alarmed him. If this kept up, he would have no choice but to put her to sleep using a Kido and take her to his father's clinic to see that she got some _actual_ help.

There was only so much that he could do, after all.

Gently laying her on her bed, he started to tuck her in when he felt teeny tiny clawed feet suddenly latch onto his leg and paused to look down at his would-be attacker. His amber eyes narrowed a little bit at the long furred black kitten hanging onto his pants leg and glaring at him.

_"Meow." _

He snorted and slowly shook his head at the kitten's demanding tone and went back to tucking his little one in when the tiny beast let out a loud growl full of ire and wrath. Pausing again in mid motion, he tried not to yelp as the nasty tempered little fur ball climbed up his pants leg and then dug his sharp little claws into his butt.

"_Ow_. What is wrong with you?" Ichigo muttered in a whisper tone.

The kitten growled again and then started to knead his butt with his claws, nearly making him yelp before he reached back and non too gently pried the little monster from his backside and held it up by the scruff of his neck and then peeled his lips back from his teeth and _snarled_ at it.

The kitten however was far from_ impressed_ or _intimidated_ by his uncharacteristic show of aggression towards it. In fact, the little beast let out a warning sound mere seconds before lunging for Ichigo's face with it's claws out.

This time Ichigo had to bite his tongue to keep himself from letting out a startled yelp and accidentally dropped the kitten onto the bed where the little beast hissed at him and then quickly scrambled up and underneath the blanket to hide itself against his little one's front.

Ichigo wasn't sure what to make of Raphael's behavior. On one hand he was pretty impressed that the kitten had gotten the best of him and on the other hand- he was far from amused. He was about two seconds from snatching the covers off of the bed, and his little one, and strangling the jet black little menace when Gale trotted in and walked over to the bed and jumped up onto it and flopped herself down on top of her brother's hiding place.

Ichigo blinked at the feline as Raphael started to try and get out from under the covers and got smacked for his efforts by his sister.

"Smack him again for me Gale." Ichigo said. And she did. Twice. The second of which sent Raphael practically howling in distress as he raced from the bedroom.

"Endorsing kitten violence...what the hell has my life come too?" Ichigo muttered to himself as he absently reached out and rubbed Gale's head, eliciting a soft purr of contentment from the tiny Siamese before he went back to his earlier task. He had just finished tucking his little one in when he noticed the small notebook lying on her bedside table and curiously picked it up.

It was his little one's 'Phantom' book.

The one that she used to communicate with him.

Holding the carefully in his hand, his amber eyes scanned the words on the page.

**Sorry for being so much trouble. I thought that I would be better today so I thought that I'd do some work. But I started to feel dizzy and might have accidentally passed out. **

Ichigo's gaze flickered from the small note to his little one as he thought, _My poor girl._

He was happy that she had written him a small note to let him know something of how she was feeling earlier, but he was pretty sure that if she was trying to make him worry less- she probably shouldn't have mentioned feeling dizzy or passing out.

Seeing the dark arrow pointing to indicate the next page, Ichigo turned the page and then smiled as he read.

**I've never bothered to ask you you're name before, which was rude of me since I should have tried. But in all honesty I wasn't sure that you would answer. And aside from that, I haven't told you my name yet. **

Ichigo's smile only grew. While it was true that she hadn't really given him a name to go with her face, he was pleased enough to call her his little one.

Still...this _was_ good. This was very good.

It meant that they were finally making some progress and he could begin to implement some of his other plans to get closer to her.

**My name is Misty Reid. I'm twenty two. My name is foreign because I was originally born in the U.S. But if calling me Misty is troublesome then you can call me whatever as long as it's not too weird. **

**I like painting, sketching, writing poetry, and am currently working on some stuff to put in a local gallery art exhibit. I also like flower arranging, cooking, watching scary movies, and making other things. **

**My favorite color- well in all honesty, I have more than one. **

**I tend to like pastel colors, as well as vivid and bright ones. My all time favorite colors are mint green and turquoise though. For some reason, they're just...prettier than all of the other colors. **

Ichigo snorted in amusement, already knowing that she liked green and turquoise more than any of the other colors in the rainbow. She favored them more than anything.

**I have two cats. Raphael- he's a sweetheart. And Gale- she...should have come with an instruction manual. I honestly sometimes worry that I brought an alien home with me. **

Ichigo bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing as he carefully seated himself down on the floor next to her bed.

**My favorite foods are...well I'm not terribly picky. And the food that you somehow fix for me is nice too. I really liked the seafood bento. It was really sweet of you to go to the trouble. Especially when you didn't have too. **

**Though I wound up fighting the cats over it. Both of the little monsters managed to sneak a few bites of shrimp from me before I could stop them. They've been eyeing the bento box ever since. So I guess they liked it too. **

Ichigo muttered something about dumb cats, even as he reached out to pet Gale again and simply kept on reading.

**I'm not very sure what else to write in this letter. It's sort of comes across a lot like a dating ad and it's making me nervous. So...um...what's your name? Age? Job- sorry. Do phantoms even have jobs aside from haunting people? **

**I guess that you can fill in anything that I've forgotten as you go. I'm...very tired. **

He must have read and re read the note at least five times before finally deciding on how to respond as he turned the page and then looked for an ink pen so that he could get started.


	2. Chapter 2

Misty stared down at the note that her 'phantom' had left behind before he had scurried off to parts unknown to hide himself away until later in the evening, _after_ she was asleep again, and scrunched up her nose a little bit as she read.

**Misty, **

**It's nice to finally have a name to go with that angelic face. I don't mind the origin of your name in the least. I plan to use it a million times or so today. **

**My name is Ichigo. And I'm twenty four. **

**My favorite foods are my late mother's recipe for curry, tempora, and cookies. I like the cinnamon spice ones the best. The white chocholate ones are pretty good too. But the spice ones are better.**

**I have one favorite color. **

**Red. **

**But I like various shades of blue too.**

**I've met you're cats. And you are probably right to suspect Gale of being an alien. I've seen some of her behavior- I thought that she was building something the other night I showed up to check on you, and found her dragging some aluminum foil through the house along with a bra (sorry for looking, btw) a chewed up pencil, and what was left of a scrunchy or two. **

**Turns out that she was just making herself a clubhouse or a nest or something. **

**She looked so happy to have the stuff that I couldn't bear to take anything that wasn't breakable from her because of choking hazards. I'm not going to lie, it was a pretty cool looking clubhouse/nest. **

**I'm jealous that she could actually manage to make off with one with one of your bra's though. **

**Raphael has attempted to attack me on several occasions though. So I don't know where this 'sweetheart' behavior is, cause I rarely see it any.**

**I've noticed that you're an artsy kind of gal. I like creative people. They drive my friends up the wall with their art speak, but I like them. **

**Besides, most of my friends are uncultured savages with the IQ's of rocks. So enough said there. **

**I'm glad that you (and the cats) liked the bento and other stuff. I do try. **

**I'm worried about you getting out of bed and passing out. And though you have an art exhibit coming up, kindly remember to take care of your health first. The next time I find you passed out on the floor- I will _call_ someone to come and get you and take you to the hospital.**

**So rest well, don't worry about the little alien and her brother- they've both been fed, watered, and their litter is nice and clean. There is also some more food for you in the mini fridge across the room. I made more than one bento just in case. I also made some soup. **

**Vegetable. It's easier on you're stomach.**

**Take care sweetheart. I'll check on you later!**

And at the bottom of the note was a doodle of a large knife shaped sword with a piece of cloth wrapped around the top part of it, the end of which looked as if it were blowing in the wind and the very end of the cloth was in the shape of a heat.

Which was..._weird_. Right?

"Phantom- er, Ichigo is flirting with me..." She muttered in a slightly freaked out tone, not really understanding how that was even possible. After all, her phantom- er, Ichigo- she meant to say Ichigo, was dead wasn't he? And to her knowledge, ghosts and such couldn't_ feel_ love.

It just wasn't possible of an echo of something that had once lived.

"Maybe he's secretly a demon?" That would explain the emotions right? She wondered as she slowly set the note aside and then climbed out of bed to go about her morning routine.

* * *

Ichigo tried to pay attention to Rukia as she spoke to him. Really he did. But he just couldn't seem to muster up the energy to bother paying too much attention. So it wasn't terribly surprising to him when she finally realized this fact and hit him.

"Ouch!" He hissed as he rubbed his sore skull. Dammit, how could he keep forgetting just how hard and bony her knuckles were? He'd known her for years now. A person would think that he'd learn after the first or second time she hit him.

But no. Not him.

It was times like this that he genuinely felt like the child he was treated as.

"Am I boring you?" She asked in an irked tone as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"No," She really wasn't boring him. In fact he secretly liked it whenever she'd pop in for some reason or another to visit and broke out her notebook of sucky drawings. And he wasn't exactly just saying that to save himself from being hit again. He was just tired from being unable to sleep upon returning home this morning. "I'm just tired. That's all."

Rukia hummed, her expression softening a little bit in understanding as she gave him an appraising look. "You went to see you're new friend last night. Didn't you?"

He had been in the process of trying to stifle a yawn when she mentioned his visit to Misty's home and that yawn of his quickly turned to a choked cough. Was it even possible to choke on air? He wondered idly as soon as he was done finally clearing his air way.

"So what if I did." He finally said. His tone defensive.

Rukia just shook her head and sighed before muttering, "_You're hopeless_..." Pure exasperation bled from her tone as she eyed him for a moment before finally asking curiously, "Did you finally find out her name?"

"Yeah, I did."

She smiled a little bit. "What is it?"

"Misty. Her name is Misty."

"That's a pretty name." Rukia said as she watched his face light up in a way that was rare for him. _In all the years that I've known him, he's only looked this happy a few times in the past. Maybe this...weird relationship that he has with Misty will be good for him. _

All Rukia could do was hope at this point.

"Yeah it is." He said as his face heated up a little bit as he wondered if his girl was doing as she was supposed too. Knowing her, she probably wasn't. But he couldn't help but hope that maybe she'd take it somewhat easy today so that she could get better. He really didn't want to find her unconscious or something.


End file.
